Belfast’s Better leisure centres to open for weekend of free family activities in celebration of 30 years of social enterprise GLL

Belfast’s Better leisure centres will open their doors to the public for a weekend of free family activities in celebration of 30 years of GLL.

The social enterprise, which was founded in 1993 and operates the 16 Better leisure centres across the city in partnership with Belfast City Council, will host the weekend of activities and celebrations on Saturday, July 22 and Sunday 23.

Activities will run throughout the weekend at Andersonstown Leisure Centre, Avoniel, Brook Leisure Centre, Falls Leisure Centre, Girdwood Community Hub, Lisnasharragh Leisure Centre, Olympia Leisure Centre, Shankill Leisure Centre, and Templemore Baths.

The celebrations will include:

· 90s themed pool parties at Templemore Baths, Brook Leisure Centre, Shankill Leisure Centre, and Falls Leisure Centre.

· Surf party at Andersonstown Leisure Centre using Surf Belfast, Northern Ireland’s first ever indoor surf simulator.

· 90s themed group exercise classes.

· A range of fitness challenges with prizes to be won throughout the day.

Families, friends, current gym members and newcomers alike are encouraged to visit their local Better leisure centre in Belfast and get involved as the team celebrate alongside their UK colleagues.

GLL is the UK’s largest public leisure and libraries co-operative and charitable social enterprise and has a clear mission to improve the physical, mental, and social health of local communities.

It runs services under the Better brand and has been a partner of Belfast City Council since 2015. Since then, it has expanded membership to 35,000 members, increased swimming lesson participation in the city by 220% and grown the team to over 700 staff members.

As a social enterprise, GLL provides concessionary membership to 53% of its 35,000 members in Belfast and in 2022 alone, delivered £20 million in social value to the local communities it operates in.

Head of service at GLL Jacqui Pope, said: “We are looking forward to a weekend of celebrating at our Better leisure centres across Belfast and hope to see many new and familiar faces joining us for some fun activities and challenges.

"This weekend is about celebrating all that GLL has achieved across the UK in its 30 years, the past eight years of which have included our work in Belfast to improve leisure services and ultimately get more people working on their physical and mental health. We are so proud of all that has been achieved and with many plans for the future, we look forward to taking this weekend to celebrate 30 years of GLL.”

The free activities will be delivered in line with demand and traditional programming at each centre. These sessions will run at specific times.

People are asked to check availability by visiting the centre’s website and social media pages.